God cannot be known by the outgoing faculties, by the intellect or the vital airs called the pranas. He can be known only by the soul: like alone can know the like. When is the soul liberated? When it is analysed from mind and the outgoing faculties.

Karma

Question: Please explain why the enactment of the drama of life.

Sant Kirpal Singh: It is all an expression of the inexorable Law of Karma. Desire is the root-cause of all bondage and re-births. Unless one becomes a Conscious Co-worker of the Divine Plan by complete self-surrender and annihilation of ego, the goal of spiritual perfection cannot be attained. Please refer to the "Wheel of Life" for exhaustive explanation.

Question:Why must our past lives be concealed from us?

Sant Kirpal Singh: It has a significance. The entire human life is a drama based on the inexorable Law of Karma which results in union and separation of the souls for the liquidation of their mutual give and take. If one is told about these karmic debts involved and the sons or daughters born to us are only our past debtors, the reason and sense of their breeding will be harmed. It is one of the chief functions of the negative power to conceal these truths from the humans for keeping the earth life agoing. You will be perhaps astonished to know that Kal has obtained three main boons from the Almighty, as contained in Sar Bachan. These are:1. Nobody will know of his or her past life;2. Nobody should know about his or her exact time and date of death; and3. The living Master should not grant holy Initiation to the humans by showing miracles but simply hold Satsangs and if the dear ones come up of themselves and seek Initiation, only then should they be initiated.

Question: When metaphysicians heal, is this the power of God or Kal?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Healing done by metaphysicians falls within the scope of negative power when the karmic debts involved are put off for the time being, and have to be repaid sometime with compound interest. The gracious Godpower does not actually punish the souls but deals out justice tempered with mercy in accordance with our karma. The Decrees of Heaven are in no way subject to error and the Divine Dispensation is invariable flavoured with Grace.

Question:Can karma apply to nations as well as individuals?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Yes. The cumulative reaction of karmic debt of nations results in wars, epidemics, destruction by fire or floods etc. For exhaustive explanation, a reference is invited to the book "Wheel of Life."

Question: How does karma work on lower animals?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Lower animals or forms of creation are bound by their past karmic debt and they do not contract any more karma during their life span. They simply are born to undergo their karmic liquidation.

Question: Can a sinner like myself attain the God-hood this very lifetime?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Yes, you can attain God-head during this lifetime provided you work for it strictly according to the behests of the Master. Let His words abide in you and you abide in Him. You have been granted the sacred boon of the holy Initiation which is a valid visa on to the Sach Khand and it is your earnest efforts and steadfastness which would bless you with fruition of your wish in due course.

(Extract from "Spiritual Elixir", vol. II, p. 36 – 45)

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Question: Does God grant any dispensation of grace to those of us who have been guilty of gross crimes, such as myself: I have killed hundreds of men under combat conditions … Men are put into a position and forced to kill.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Yes, I just explained it. There's a law of judgement, and there's a Law of Grace: there are both. If a candle is burning, there's always darkness underneath; when a bulb is burning, there's darkness above. Both are the laws of nature. There's a law of judgement, and there's a Law of Grace. The law of judgment is – what do you say? – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. There nobody escapes. But there's a Law of Grace which is developed, how? I will tell you: When you become conscious – the beloved of God, the God-in-man; because it is God alone who can give that contact with Him. He comes across by means of some person at whose pole He is manifest. He follows Him, repents for his past actions; He takes him under His care.

Don't you remember, in the case of Christ, that a woman of the town came up to him? She went in where he was and washed his feet with her tears and cleansed them with her hair. And Simon the Pharisee, who was there, thought, "Well, strange. If he is a Master, he has become faithless. Does he not have the common sense to know that this lady here is a woman of the town?" Then Christ – because he could read the hearts of others – said, "Well, Simon, look here." He said, "Yes?" "Do you know, if one man owes somebody 50 pence and another owes him 500, and the man to whom they owe it forgives them both, to whom he has done the greatest favour?" And Simon thought, "Perhaps he's a very overactive Master; he wants to conceal his sin" – because each man thinks from his own level. He said, "Yes, the one to whom he has forgiven the 500." Then Jesus said, "Look here, I came to your house; you did not welcome me; you did not wash my feet; you did not offer me anything. And she has come and wept; and with her tears she's washing my feet." He said to her, "All I forgive thee, for thou hast loved much."

There is a Law of Grace, too. If you repent and fall down at the feet of God-in-man, since it is God, if God can create the world, in that case your reactions are nullified. As I told you just now, who is there to forgive sins? Only God; God can forgive sins. Is it not so? God can; but the point is, in whatever plane we are working, we have to abide by those laws. When we rise above the body and become the conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan, as I told you, all reactions, all the karmas, are wound up.

So there's a Law of Grace, too – if we earn it. Both are laws; there's a law of judgement, also. I tell you: a seed is sown. Was there a hen before the egg or an egg before the hen? Is there any way out? No? Was there a seed first or a tree first? So there's no way out. When you rise above these levels of thinking – physical, astral and causal – and you become a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan, all seeds are burned away and cannot grow. That's how it stands. If you are a father who has a son who has fought with somebody, would you want to send him to the police? You'd slap him once or twice, your own self, but you wouldn't let him go to the police. It's something like that.Love is the greatest law. Love knows what? Keep my commandments. So they generally don't interfere like that; but those who surrender everything to Him, they are saved. As I told you, both are laws: the law of judgment is there, and the Law of Grace is there, too.

(Extract from SSE, Dec. 1976, p. 39)

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When Masters come, what do They do? They wind up all actions, all karmas. How? There is no end to it – action, reaction will go on. We sow new seeds; some are in fruit; some are in store: it goes on and on, again and again, like that – there's no end to it. And even the incarnations cannot say, "I will escape." So what do Masters do? To those who come to Them, They lay down a line of action for the future life: Don't think evil of anybody, even in thought, word and deed. Be truthful in all your actions: no acting or posing, at heart having something, but saying something else; not deceiving anybody. And be chaste in thought, word and deed. And love all; and do selfless service. These are the actions to be laid up for the future. If you do that, well, there will be no sowing.

Comment: That's pretty tough.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Anyhow, there's hope. Never mind. Everything appears to be tough, but still, there's hope. But something more is done for the disciple, not only that. This is for the reaction. The Masters give him a contact with God within, with the Light and Sound of God within. That goes to nullify reactions, to help him inside. They have love for all, and naturally these things become easier. This is one thing. Those karmas which are now in fruit and on which our present life is based, they do not touch. Otherwise, if they were to touch them, the man would die; because our life is based on that. But what do They do? They give food – the Bread of Life – to the soul. They give a contact with the Light and Sound Principle within: that is the Bread of Life; and the soul becomes strong.

What is the result? When these present karmas come up – sometimes it is poverty, sometimes sickness, sometimes this and that – because the soul is strong, all these reactions lose their pinching effect. It is just like the case of a fight in which there is one very weak person and the others are very strong. When the weak one gets one blow, he turns and says, "I'm killed!" And the others, who are strong, do not care even if they get many blows. It is because they are strong enough.

So reactions do come up; but you get the strength of soul by eating the Bread of Life, which is coming in contact with the Light and Sound Principle within. So the present life passes that way.

When you come in contact with God – when you become a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan – all karmas which are in store are burned away; just as if you roast seeds in the oven, they won't grow. And this is the way in which all the karmas are wound up. That is why it is said: "What is the use of going to a Master if these reactions are not ended? If you go to the feet of a lion and are afraid of jackals, what's the use of going to a lion? This is how the karmas are wound up: first, by prescribing a certain conduct of life; second, by an inner, higher contact.

(Extract from SSE, Dec. 1976, p. 33)

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Question: Does each incarnation in nature work out specific karmas?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Only in the man body. They are bound in lower forms of creation. They are not free. In man body, man is bound to some extent, and free within certain limits. When a railroad line is set, the train will run over it. You are given the railroad line with the freedom of laying the tracks in whatever direction you like. So in man body, we are free to certain extents. All other forms are bound. There is no question of freedom.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 43)

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Question: Can only the spiritual seed which we have sown here in earthly life be developed in the Beyond? And then secondly, when we have made no effort to develop current ability, can we develop then in the Beyond?

Sant Kirpal Singh: It will take a longer time there as compared with here. What will take years to do there you can do here in months. That's the difference. The seed cannot be destroyed but it can be developed here more quickly than there in the Beyond. So in man body we have got more glimpses. And in those cases (in the Beyond), only that seed will grow in which you have not the slightest attachment to the world. Otherwise you'll have to come back as the man body and develop It. Do you follow? A seed has been sown. For instance in those who have been initiated, that seed has been sown. It is growing. If you develop here, by coming in contact with that God Power and all other attachments are cut off, then you are not to return. You'll have to develop there; but in a longer time as compared with here.

If the seed is sown and you've got hundreds of attachments here, then you'll have to come back as man; not below the category of man, that's the point. Scriptures say something but they're very brief; there are many side issues. Now what I tell you appeals to common sense. The man who has got no attachments may not return; the seed will grow but it will take longer. If a man has attachments, too many attachments, give and take, here - there, he'll have to come back. The seed has not grown. If the seed had grown, that would have helped in becoming unattached. Do you follow? If the seed is grown here, it is just like a canker in the timber. Outwardly it appears all right, but inside it is all eaten up, you see. Just the same, the seed is sown. If you've developed, then you'll be unattached in the inner way. It will help in that way. Now that point is clear, is it not? That's good. So that is why it is said: If you're a learned man at the time of leaving the body, you'll remain learned. You cannot become a Saint by coming out of this room. You are what you are here. By simply going out of the body, you cannot become a Saint. You are what you have developed. I think that appeals to common sense. Does it not ... I ask you? Does what I'm telling you appeal to common sense?